Why You Can’t Afford to Make the Wrong Hire

Hiring the wrong person for the job is a costly mistake in more ways than one. According to a study conducted by the recruiting industry, the true cost of onboarding an employee at the middle management level is $240,000. That is when everything goes well and the new hire is a good fit for the job. When he or she has the external qualifications but fails to be a good fit, that cost increases to $840,000.

Hiring top employees

The author of the report arrived at this figure by estimating the salary, benefits, and onboarding costs of a manager who stayed with the company for two and a half-years and was then fired or left voluntarily.…

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4 Tips to Keep Your Small Business Employees Happy and Productive

Most startups and small businesses fold within their first two years. And with that in mind, it makes sense that employee productivity can feel like one of the many metrics which can make or break your business. Getting work done efficiently and meeting client deadlines is absolutely critical to build the trust and reliability you need. But that can mesh relatively poorly with the expectations of employees, who often expect that a smaller company will provide them with less stress and more flexibility.

Happy employees

But the worst thing business owners and managers can do is crack the whip to try and squeeze more productivity out of their employees.…

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When OSHA Visits: Smart Ways to Handle Your Company’s Citation

If you’ve been notified of an inspection by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), you need to respond quickly. You also need to know how to prepare your employees for any questions they may be asked by an OSHA inspector. Here’s how to handle your company’s possible citation.

OSHA inspection

Talk to Your Attorney

If your company has received notice of an OSHA inspection, you should consult with an attorney right away. Your lawyer will help you gather the information you need to prepare for the investigation.

Greeting the Inspector

The inspector will arrive at the company and present his or her credentials.…

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5 Tips for Adult Learners Returning to Education to Boost their Careers

In the wake of November’s spending review, the adult education sector breathed a sigh of relief as George Osborne announced core funding would be protected. The government had been expected to cut funding to the already fragile sector which has endured years of setbacks and is undergoing an area review.

Businessman learning in a further education course

While some return to education in later life to nurture a skill or hobby, gaining extra qualifications can increase financial worth and improve chances of promotion. The news of funding protection was, therefore, a boost for those adults who are seeking further education (FE) as an opportunity to enhance their careers.…

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7 Office Design Strategies to Boost Employee Morale

The biggest asset to your organization is your staff. They are the people that manage the processes, product development and service experience to keep your customers happy. The fact is, many people are doing the job for a paycheck. They want to have job satisfaction, but the thought of working for someone or having their freedom restricted causes discontent and even disengagement from the work that they are doing.

Happy employees in healthy office environment

Happy workers will usually rave on about their working environment, citing the way the office looks and feels, as well as the positivity that they receive from other workers. Boosting your employees’ morale will unlock productivity surpluses that will make your business more profitable.…

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3 Benefits the Most Talented Employees Look For in an Employer

For many small business owners, there’s a difficult balance to strike between being fiscally responsible and giving employees incentive to stay with your company. While some business owners feel that taking a very minimalistic approach will give them the most financial reward, this point of view may prove to be very short-sighted. If you have grand ideas for your small business and plan to expand in the future, you’re going to want to acquire the talent to get you there—and that talent typically won’t work for nothing.

Employer and her employees

Hard working, valuable employees understand their worth to a company and want to be compensated accordingly.…

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How to Market your Business and Score the Best Employees

Hiring quality employees is one of the most important parts of running a successful business. You have to have workers you can rely on to get the job done so you can spend your time doing work on the company rather than for the company. However, it can be difficult to know how and where you can find the best employees to work for you.

We are hiring!

To help busy business owners who need outstanding employees but don’t have months to go through the hiring process, here are three tips for how to market your business to get the best employees quickly.

Have Your Website on Ready Alert

When you have an available position within your company, you’ll likely only get resumes and applications from people who are currently on the job hunt.…

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3 Ways HR Can Improve the Functionality of Your Business

To be a truly valuable human resources professional, you have to bring something to the table that no other person on your executive board is capable of. While you or your CEO may have initially seen your role as little more than understanding the rules of the company and making sure you’re in compliance with larger, national rules, having a more business-oriented role in your company can be a huge asset in every area. To learn how, here are three ways that someone in HR can improve the overall functionality of a business.

Human resource department

A Better Trained Staff

One traditional and important way that human resources professionals can improve the functionality of a business is to create a more proactive and competent staff.…

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5 Little-Noticed but Important Ways Business Owners Can Keep Employees Happy

Running a small business can provide a lot of joy to the one running it, but that doesn’t mean doing so is a cakewalk. The struggles of improving cash flow, growing a client base, planning and waging effective marketing campaigns, and maintaining a happy and healthy workforce takes continual effort, and it can be exhausting. For many small business owners, the punch list is truly never fully punched, which means some aspects of the list must take precedence over others.

Happy employees high-five

Believe it or not, tending to how your employees feel is one of the most vital parts of running a successful business.…

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Is your Formal Education Done?

The way people get their formal education is changing all the time. There is an international conversation about whether or not traditional higher education models are worth it, for just about anyone. They’re expensive, and recent years have proven that they often do not pay off, especially monetarily. Others critique traditional learning models for not being relevant to the tasks at hand, when people graduate and enter their real careers.  Add that fact to the burden of student debts, making higher education a further reach by most.

Businessman taking higher education

In response to the challenges, programs like online mba programs california and elite universities like Harvard Business School have been striving to stay on the cutting edge of useful education models for many generations.…

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